Eclipse
by Happymood
Summary: Orihime is sure she is going to forget him sooner or later, but when her relationship with Ichigo doesn't work, she wonders if she should just stop searching. Because he is dead, right? Unrequired IchiHime, UlquiHime


**A.N. This is actually a story I wrote in 2010 and that I decided to rewrite because I love Ulquihime so much that I thought it was a shame to let it in that pitiful state that it was before. The original has been accidentally deleted, but if you find yourself thinking this story reminds you of something, is probably because you have already read it. XD To the new readers, you must know more about the recent goings on in Bleach that I do, because I actually dropped seeing that anime. So if something is not correct, please forgive me. Please forgive me as well for any grammatical or lexical errors as well. Enjoy!**

Throughout his life he had followed a simple rule: his master commands, and he does as told. Following orders felt like a second skin on him, and he doesn't think he has something to lose by doing so. Grimmjow could mock him as much as he wanted, but Ulquiorra knew that he had no other reason to live than this, and that it was useless to try and rebel like the other wanted to do.

Ulquiorra knew that that was one of the reasons why his master preferred him among any other servant. He has no feelings. He has no reason to say no, and no space for regret and guilt in his heart.

He has no heart. He is the soldier any army would want.

He had been perfect.

But then.

Then she comes into the picture. He is ordered to take care of her, and unexpectedly everything he knows was certain fills with doubt. He is still the perfect soldier, but if Aizen orders to kill her, he knows that for the first time in his life he wouldn't have the strength to do it.

And that is, isn't it?

It took him so long to understand what was wrong with him. He thought that it had been pity, but now he realizes that is not the right word to describe what he feels.

He feels.

It is ridiculous, and yet that what it is.

Now it is too late. He reaches for her, looking at her through his slowly disappearing fingers. He is turning to sand.

He realizes then that he would have liked to know what her skin felt like under his touch. He realizes that everything would have make sense if she had smiled at him at least once.

That is what he had been searching for.

She looks at him with those big silver eyes of hers and raises her hand to him. She can't reach him.

That is. He thinks as he disappears completely. The figure between his fingers.

The heart.

She should feel happy that Ichigo came to save her instead of this sadness. She shouldn't feel like this.

"Are you afraid, woman?" He asks.

_Of what is going to happen?_

She understands.

"I'm not afraid." She says.

_But I__ feel sad. _She doesn't know why but it's like her body moves on its own accord. She tries to catch his extended fingers, but her hand just closes over rough sand. It shouldn't hurt so much to see him dying.

He had been her captor. She had waited for Ichigo to save her while Ulquiorra did nothing but try to instill fear and doubts in her mind.

She knows Ichigo is watching her closely, but her eyes are fixed on Ulquiorra and on those tear marks under his eyes. That sad expression on his pale face had been her reason to stay.

She watches him disappear into sand while her hand is still stretched out.

_I'm not afraid, but I feel sad._

How many times has he said the word 'despair'? Only now she understands this word's true meaning. It is a black hole in her heart that sucks out even the tiniest glimpse of hope she could manage to create.

"Had he always felt like this?" she thinks, "Until the very end, the same way I feel now?"

It is sad when someone doesn't find a reason to live, but she has seen it in his eyes. There had been still hope. He hadn't been a bad man.

"Inoue?" Ichigo calls and she turns to him.

That is not the right time to mourn. There is a war going on and her friends are all putting their lives on the line. She needs to be with them and help them as much as she can. That is her reason to live.

"Let's go." Ichigo says and she nods.

No, now it isn't the time to mourn. She follows Ichigo and Ishida away from that tower, away from that white sand still flowing in the wind, away from a piece of her soul she doesn't know she is leaving behind.

* * *

Aizen is dead.

They won, but the price they had to pay had been high. There are friends that are never going to come back. Inoue feels so guilty for not being able to do anything for them.

That is why she tries so hard now.

She looks down at the boy she is so desperately trying to heal. She is exhausted but she doesn't want to give up.

"No, you too…" She whispers and cries as her hands glows over Ichigo once more. Minutes feel like centuries. Ichigo doesn't wake up. She is going to pass out from the strain.

"Kurosaki-kun…" She mutters again and again. The glowing in her hands loses in density. She is going to pass out. Tears form in her eyes as she tries again, and suddenly the orange haired boy under her slowly opens his eyes. Her hands finally stop glowing. He looks at her and takes a big breath as if he had been underwater for a long time.

"Kurosaki-kun." She says, her voice trembling, and Ichigo takes her hand in his and grins. It is weak but it is still a grin.

"It's over." He mutters. She wants to smile at him too, but all she lets out is a sob.

"I'm so happy." She explains when Ichigo blinks at her in confusion.

She is a liar.

* * *

The day Aizen was defeated is known to everyone as Freedom's Day. It is the day where everyone can celebrate their victory and mourn their heroes. A festival is held that same night. She doesn't go.

Neither she does the year after.

* * *

Hollows are not gone. Even after all that time they still give a hard time to Shinigamis. Whenever Ichigo and Rukia must confront one of them, Inoue offers to help. They agree because they know they are both strong enough to make it on their own and save her if needed. Moreover, they need her healing abilities.

Every time she watches Ichigo run and kill Hollows without wasting much of his energy. Every time she is amazed at how strong Ichigo and Rukia have become. Every time something doesn't feel right. It is something in the way the Hollows disappear that makes her feel uneasy.

Is it hurting? She asks herself. What is it feeling?

It is a ridiculous thought, but one day she can't contain herself anymore and asks Rukia about it.

"What happens to Hollows after you kill them?"

Rukia is taken aback. Inoue pretends not to notice as she pours tea to the both of them. The Shinigami looks at her reflection in the golden liquid with furrowed eyebrows deep in thought. The question has startled her, and Inoue decides to play it off as a joke.

"Yeah, well…" Inoue adds, blushing a little, "I know they are purified and all, but I really wonder what happens afterwards."

"I'm not sure." Rukia says then raising her eyes at her level, "I guess most of them get a second chance at life in Soul Society."

"Most of them?" Orihime asks confused.

"I mean…" Rukia starts, afraid she is going to say something wrong and hurt Orihime in the process. "I mean the really bad guys, those that have sinned too much in their life and can be never purified completely just… disappear, I guess."

Rukia shoots a worried look at Inoue, but the other girl just nods and smiles.

"Thank you." She says and then changes the conversation to something lighter.

* * *

Now every time she steps into Soul Society, she first glances around at the people walking around her. Her heart jumps a little when she spots black hair or emerald eyes, but she never fully comprehends why she feels so let down afterwards when she sees the real face those black hair and emerald eyes belong to.

Then someone from the Squads would call her and she would immediately forget her fears.

Another Freedom Day comes. Rukia and Renji almost beg Ichigo and Orihime to be there.

"It's going to be great!" Rukia says grinning to ear to ear, "This time there I going to be a boot where you can win Chappy's puppets!"

Ichigo doesn't look excited about it.

"How old are you?" Ichigo retorts, "Aren't you a little grown up for that type of thing?" he grins, "Shouldn't you be like… sixty or something? OW! BASTARD!"

Rukia kicks him hard in the jaw, making Renji fall down from his chair and roll around laughing.

"You were begging for it!" Renji exclaims and dries the tears from his eyes. Ichigo makes to punch Renji's face when suddenly Orihime opens her mouth to speak:

"I heard there are going to be fireworks too." She says and smiles fondly at Ichigo. "I'm going. Are you going too, Kurosaki-kun?"

Ichigo blushes and nods once, and Renji giggles teasingly in a corner, out of Ichigo's reach.

* * *

The yukata she wears is beautiful. Everyone is staring at her, but she doesn't notice at all. Ichigo snarls from time to time whenever someone's eyes linger on Orihime's chest a little too long.

Orihime is too happy to notice, and continues to talk animatedly with Rukia and Matsumoto besides her. From time to time her eyes wonder around, searching for a familiar face in the crowd. No one sees the slightly sad look on her face. Matsumoto and Rukia laugh over something funny they saw. Only Ichigo looks away when Orihime subconsciously drifts to another world where_ he_ still exists.

Later that night Ichigo takes Inoue by the hand and drags her away from the others. Orihime doesn't feel the tension in the air and just smiles when Ichigo asks her if there is anything she would like to eat.

They talk. They walk together. They laugh. Then Ichigo shyly asks her if he has the right to kiss her. She blushes ten shades of red because her first crush finally seems to return her feelings. She is shacking from head to toe as Ichigo finally leans down. Their lips lock together, and Inoue is happy because her dream finally became true.

Ichigo is uncharacteristically blushing when he tentatively reaches for her hand. Inoue slightly touches her lips and feels them hot.

"I'm-!" Ichigo starts, but just then someone calls them. He sighs in frustration and stands up. "Let's go." He says and she smiles.

"Yes."

When she looks down at their intertwined fingers she wonders for a moment why Ichigo's hand wasn't pale and big as it should have been.

No. She reprimands herself. This is what I always wanted.

* * *

The next Freedom Day Ichigo and Orihime attend the festival as an official couple. Renji jokingly asks them when they are going to marry. Orihime blushes while Ichigo (after punching his best friend in the gut) tells them they are too young to think about stuff like that.

"Well, then, did you at least hit third base already?" Rangiku asks instead. Renji is snickering somewhere nearby.

"Matsumoto!" Hitsugaya yells. The busty woman just pouts and changes conversation, but the perverted glint in her eyes doesn't disappear. Orihime blushes again and fondles with her hair, but at the same time she wants to smile at how normal everything feels.

Except that something was never right.

She doesn't notice Ichigo sadly stare at her.

One morning she wakes up in her bed alone. She hears the water running, and realizes that is Ichigo taking a shower. She wonders why he is still there after what happened between them the night before.

She closes her eyes and remembers the way Ichigo moved above her. She blushes when she recalls the way her lips had parted when they reached their climax and she has whispered the name she has never dared to say since that faithful day.

She had felt him tense. She knows that she has messed big time, and she is surprised when Ichigo hadn't left her and stayed the night instead. She slowly puts her clothes on, and Ichigo suddenly appears at the door with a towel around his waist.

"You awake?" He asks. There is no anger in his voice as there should have been. Inoue smiles.

"Do you want breakfast?" She asks instead. Ichigo immediately shakes his head no, and leans down to kiss her on the lips.

"I need to go."

"Okay." She mutters then.

* * *

That same night they watch the stars together from the rooftop. Inoue stares intently at the sky above them and then exclaims:

"Look! Ichigo-kun! A shooting star!"

Ichigo looks up but remains silent.

"Did you make a wish?" Orihime asks then.

"Orihime…" Ichigo starts and turns to look at her straight in the eyes. His tone of voice is way too serious for Orihime to pretend that everything is alright. "You never forgot him, have you?" he asks after another long moment of silence.

Orihime is taken aback and tells him immediately: "I love you!"

Ichigo sighs and smiles sadly at her.

"But not as much as him."

Orihime bits her lips.

"I always loved you." Orihime admits after a moment. "I always wanted to be with you, but…" she closes her eyes, "I think my heart has been stolen from you."

Silence fells. Orihime just stares at the stars.

"I did make a wish." Ichigo says with a smile. He stands up and Orihime watches him go.

_I wish you find him._

* * *

Ichigo and Orihime break up has been painful. She is tired of searching, and Orihime decides that she should keep her mind off Ichigo and start doing something useful instead. She studies hard for the exams and manages to enroll in a medical school. It will feel nice to be able to heal people both on Earth and Soul Society.

The years pass. She still goes to Soul Society from time to time, but not as much as she used to. That day she needs to meet Matsumoto, but there she is too early and decides to walk aimlessly around for a bit to pass the time.

People walk around her, chatting and laughing and being happy. She smiles at the children playing in the streets and she is so deep in thought that she accidentally bumps into someone.

"I'm sorry!" She exclaims at the man before them. The man slowly turns to look at her and she widens her eyes at him. Her breath is cut short in her throat. She could recognize that face everywhere, even if the tear marks are gone and the broken mask is nowhere to be seen.

"I-!" She starts but the words don't come out. The man looks down at her with furrowed eyebrows. Even the melancholic aura is still there. "Ulquiorra?"

"Do you know me?" He asks. Inoue is taken aback, but she feels like crying when she hears his voice. "Did you know me before?"

"Ulquiorra!" She exclaims instead. His face is totally blank, there is no emotion, and her heart beats frantically in her chest. "You don't remember me?" She asks then, and suddenly bursts out crying. Ulquiorra looks at her, and she sharply inhales when he puts a hand on her cheek.

"I thought you were a dream." He says. She suddenly feels exhausted. "I don't remember much about my past life." He adds, "But I do remember you. What were you to me back then?", a pause, "Inoue?"

Inoue smiles and cries at the same time, while Ulquiorra traces her tears with his thumb.

"I was your heart." Inoue says. "You were my heart." She adds then.

* * *

"I'll return…" Orihime says as the two of them sit in his little wooden apartment somewhere in Rokugai. He looks at her and runs his hand through her hair, making her blush.

"I'll always wait for you." He says. Orihime feels strange to hear him say such things but it makes her feel special. "Now that I found you." he doesn't continue but they both agree.

* * *

When Aizen died and Soul Society was finally at peace, Yamamoto Genryuusai told Urahara that he was free to return home whenever he wanted. Urahara gently accepted but never left his shop in the human world and just came and go from Soul Society whenever he pleased.

He is one of the few who could make a passage to and from Soul Society from the human world and many ask for his help if they so needed. So he isn't surprised when Inoue Orihime asks him if he can help her pass to Soul Society.

What surprised him is, as a matter of fact, that she comes and goes more than she usually did before the last Freedom Day, which is close to never.

One day Urahara decides to discretely pop the question and the orange haired girl, now a woman, smils at him.

"I found Ulquiorra-san, Urahara-san." she says her eyes holding an emotion Urahara knows too well. Kisuke doesn't know the guy but has heard of him from Ichigo and he knows he had been one of the boy's enemies back in the day.

Urahara has to admit, however, that he has never saw Orihime as happy as she does whenever she is going to meet him.

He wants to help her because when the sun is clouded over no one really feels happy.

* * *

One day Orihime takes Ulquiorra's arm and says:

"I'll come live with you." he looks at her.

"You have a life in the human world. You are a human." He just retorts. "Live a normal life and forget about me. I can't give you anything."

"You give me everything." Orihime says, her voice shaking with emotion. "Come with me… let's have a normal life together."

"Orihime, you know that's impossible." He says and she knows and it hurts. "I'm only a soul. I can't return to the human world. I am… happy that I can see you every day here, but how it can work out? How can I live with you?"

She looks down at her feet and let go of his arm, surrendering to crude facts.

"Why everything must be so difficult." she whispers. "Why every time something tears us apart?"

That day she stands on her tiptoes to reach him. She kisses him and he holds her in his arm. Orihime thinks it is actually bittersweet, and there is none of the feelings described in the books.

However, if she could stay like this forever, she would.

* * *

Finding him for Urahara had been an easy task. His reiatsu is powerful, even if he isn't a Hollow anymore, and he can be detected fast. Urahara knocks on the apartment's door, fanning himself, and smiles when the black haired man opens the door, clearly not expecting to see him.

"May I come in?" Urahara asks cheerfully, but the man is suspicious.

"Who are you?"

"I'm one of Orihime's friends." He says straight to the point and the man nods to him to come in. They sit down on the wooden floor, the smile never leaving Urahara's face. Ulquiorra doesn't talk, Urahara doesn't expect frivolous conversation.

"She's sad, you know." Urahara says after a moment, closing the fan and looking at the raven in the eyes. Ulquiorra's face is impassive, but Urahara feels a wave of guilt in the other's eyes.

"You already know why." He says, but Urahara shakes his head.

"No."

There are some moments of silence before the raven decides to speak:

"The sun and the moon are destined never to be together."Ulquiorra says and there a ghost of a cheerless smile on his lips that doesn't go unnoticed. Urahara suddenly understands and he realizes how hopeless Orihime must feel. How hopeless they both must be feeling.

The blond man doesn't answer immediately. He thinks and suddenly a name pops into his head: _Kurosaki Isshin. _

Yeah, he had had the same problem.

Yeah, it could be done.

"That's not exactly true." Urahara says, opening the fan again and hiding his grin. "There is always the eclipse."

* * *

Orihime stares at the sky from her room's window. She doesn't see anything and her mind is empty. She thinks she is dreaming when a young man passes in the street, wearing human clothes. She curses herself for hoping but when she sees Urahara together with the other man suddenly she realizes she isn't dreaming at all.

It takes her a second to run down the stairs. A second to open the door. Ulquiorra is there, he is real, in his gigai form. Urahara waves at her and grins.

She is petrified. Ulquiorra makes the first step. Walks slowly to her, her eyes don't leave his form. In a moment she is in his arms and kissing him breathlessly.

* * *

Is he dreaming? Has he really died and come back? Had he really found her?

Does she love him? Doesn't she hate him for whatever he has done to her in the previous life?

Does he deserve her?

Does he deserve this..? He thinks again as he looks down at big silver eyes, staring intently at him as if they were seeing him for the first time.

Ulquiorra raises his hand and makes to touch those little black curls on top of the baby's head. The little boy takes one of his fingers in his tiny hands and opens his mouth. He is real.

"That's cannibalism." Ulquiorra says matter of fact-ly and the little boy stops what he was going to do and blinks his big eyes at him before smiling. Orihime's smile. Had anyone told him, _he_ was going to be real, he wouldn't have believed them.

This boy. _Their_ boy. It still feels impossible.

Ulquiorra looks up, around the house. His eyes linger on the photographs on the walls, on all the memories they shared, then he watches as Orihime approaches him and smiles as him in that unique way of hers.

She looks down on the baby and takes him in her arms. He has to admit the scene is too perfect to be just a dream. She looks at him.

And Ulquiorra does something he thought he had forgotten how to.

He smiles.

**The end**


End file.
